All the time, the Reformed faith was rapidly gaining adherents, and when, in April, 1554, the queen-dowager succeeded Arran (now Duke of Chatelherault) as regent, she found the problem of governing Scotland still more difficult. The relations with England had, indeed, been simplified by the accession of a Roman Catholic queen in England, but the Spanish marriage of Mary Tudor made it difficult for a Guise to obtain any help from her. She continued the policy of obtaining French levies, and the irritation they caused was a considerable help to her opponents. Knox had returned to Scotland in 1555, and, except for a visit to Geneva in 1556-57, spent the rest of his life in his native country. In 1557 was formed the powerful assembly of Protestant clergy and laymen who took the title of "the Congregation of the Lord", and signed the National Covenant which aimed at the abolition of Roman Catholicism. Their hostility to the queen-regent was intensified by the events of the year 1558-59. In April, 1558, Queen Mary was married to the dauphin, and her husband received the crown-matrimonial and became known as King of Scots. Scotland seemed to have passed entirely under France. We know that there was some ground for the Protestant alarm, because the girl queen had been induced to sign documents which transferred her rights, in case of her decease without issue, to the King of France and his heirs. These documents were in direct antagonism to the assurance given to the Scottish Parliament of the maintenance of national independence. The French alliance seemed to have gained a complete triumph, while the shout of joy raised by its supporters was really the swan-song of the cause. Knox and the Congregation had rendered it for ever impossible.